Reaching Through the Screen with Tony Robbins

Claiming 60,000 attendees in 119 countries, Tony Robbins has become the master of virtual events. But it wasn’t always that way. At the start of the pandemic, his super-lucrative in-person coaching business was hemorrhaging. Robbins had little alternative but to go virtual. He didn’t tiptoe, either. During the pandemic, he used Worre Studios in Las Vegas, among others, to create energetic, in-your-face shows with 360-degree LED screens surrounding him. In a TikTok promotion, he said that virtual technology could let him “reach out to every member of the audience and know their names.” His audience more than doubled in size compared to his physical events. According to newspaper accounts, Robbins is now building his own production facility in Florida. Like him or not, watch him masterfully work his virtual event to make them really connect. Not saying we’re all going to go full-out Tony, but it’s an instructive case study of mastering the virtual. Sage Events, which powered some of Robbins events, tells a similarly compelling story of a pivot to virtual that worked for them, big time.

Launching Canva in the Workplace

A consistent look, feel and energy can make an event. Canva Create, Canva’s recent client event, stayed on point, on message and high energy as they took their customers on a journey of work reimagined. For a brand, a mixture of learning and inspiration is what the crowds ordered. Pre-event promos, the look and feel of the materials, and the event experiences were all created to reinforce the image of a new Canva designed for enterprise workflows. And it worked. Congrats to Melanie Perkins, a young Australian technology entrepreneur, who is the co-founder and chief executive officer of Canva, together with Cliff Obrecht. Perkins is one of the youngest female CEOs of a tech start-up, with her company now valued at over $1 billion.

Coachella Turns Scavenger

Coachella Quests were festival-wide scavenger hunts that drove engagement, activity and revenue throughout the festival. According to Event Marketer, 50,000 Quests both onsite and virtual were completed. Participants in this tech-savvy crowd had to open a Web3 wallet to begin the Quests. The wallet’s underlying blockchain technology let them participate, while still protecting their identity. The wallet collected digital stamps for doing everything from engaging before the event, to engaging with the festival’s social media channels and then partaking in on-site hunts for various objects. Merch, VIP admissions, and other prizes were all enticements for the hunt.

Scavenger hunts never grow old, but this Web3 twist made the concept relevant to a new generation. Similarly, Snapchat is also being used to create virtual passports at events. Using digital stamps and collectibles is a relatively simple way for any brand to extend their reach and to playfully keep their audiences in the mix. 

Invite a Creator 

Forget celebs. Dylan Huey, the Gen Z founder of REACH, wrote to tell us about how creators supported Prime Video & Amazon MGM Studios to host the highly successful LA Influencer Premiere for the Gen Z darling Maxton Hall. (A 6-part soap opera about a posh boarding school demands a Creator mentality.) Huey’s stats from the premiere are noteworthy:

• 82 RSVP'd creators
• 410M+ Cumulative followers among creators
• 150+ Social media posts
• Top press Including Getty Images and MaximoTV
• Plus food, open bar, step & repeat, and activations (the quintessential Gen Z must-haves) 

Small and Intimate

Small is beautiful. We’re seeing a resurgence of intimate dinner parties where conversation is king. Sessionboard, Shiloh Events and Accelevents gathered a group of customers and creatives in NYC last week. Each person got an icebreaker question placed at the dinner setting. The result was a deeply felt, provocative and lively conversation. It would have never happened in a large event format. 

Zoom’s Paltry Polling
Felippe Nardi, a well-known Zoom power user, is no fan of Zoom’s polling feature. Too many clicks, pop-ups and ensuing confusion, he says. Too long a wait time for poll results to trickle in. In his YouTube video he’ll show you how to bypass Zoom polls. The alternative that we like best is Slido, though we’ve used Mentimeter too. They’re both highly visual and customizable but they do require your attendees to watch two screens at once. In his tutorial Nardi ultimately invents his own Zoom-polling work-around using StreamDeck. Get your geek on and watch. 

VivaTech’s Rave Reviews
Paris is no longer just about love, chocolate croissants, or fashion. VivaTech was started in 2016 by leading communication company, Publicis Groupe, and a major French business newspaper, Les Echos, and the event just ended its Paris run. Out to prove that Paris is a fashionable place for techies, the audience has grown to over 150,000 with thousands of startup exhibitors. The speaker list is at least as delicious as that croissant.